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Based on ethnographic fieldwork in two non-Orthodox synagogues in France, this paper examines the gendered division of ritual in Jewish movements that have recently opened them up to women, and how participation in the ritual reading of the Torah constructs a gendered Jewish subjectivity. Eligibility to participate in this ritual is determined by complex religious codes: these vary across religious movements and define gender and ethnic boundaries. In Orthodox Judaism, for example, only men may compete for the chance to represent the Jewish people ritually. In the synagogues covered by this study, women do participate in the ritual, yet they appropriate it differently. Most women tend to see it as an individual act rather than an honor they are supposed to seek out in a hierarchical and communitarian logic.